10,556 research outputs found
Client-consultant interaction practices: Sources of ingenuity, value creation and strategizing
No full textService providers increasingly choose to interact with their clients. Previous studies show that client’s resources and activities can influence the service provider’s ability to create value, to be creative, and to develop competitive strategies. Yet several gaps can be identified in the literature regarding how these abilities are impacted by client-consultant interaction (c-c-i) practices. The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to explain the service providers’ varying ability to offer highly valuable solutions to their clients’ problems, in terms of the practices through which consultants interact with their clients. The main research questions are;
How do client-consultant interaction practices influence a firm’s ability to offer unique value propositions and deliver ingenious solutions, and how do these practices influence the formation of the firm’s strategy? These questions are answered through four papers. Each paper answers a sub-question.
Paper 1 focuses on the impact of c-c-i practices on the service providers’ ingenuity capabilities. The paper asks how project teams shatter constraints in ill-structured problem-solving situations, and what implications this finding has for the understanding of creative action in organizations. This paper sheds light on the c-c-i practices through which project teams shatter their constraints and create ingenious solutions.
Paper 2 focuses on the creative aspects of c-c-i practices and presents the experiences of service providers who have been successful in capitalizing on the creative resources provided by their clients.
Paper 3 is an inquiry into the relationship between c-c-i practices and the service providers’ ability to offer unique value propositions. The paper provides a model to define and assess value created through c-c-i practices. The findings of this paper show that value creation is maximized through c-c-i practices that provide access to various forms of capital and practice that enable capital exploitation. Unique value offerings can be developed from knowing what c-c-i practices to enact in different circumstances.
Paper 4 focuses on the implications of c-c-i practices for the emergence of new strategies. The findings show that mundane business operations can be the locus of strategizing, and that clients can play a role in emergent strategy formation. Theoretical resources for this research are drawn from literature on practice theory, strategy, organizational creativity, and value creation. An explorative research design is used and qualitative data are gathered from 30 cases through extensive field work. Both in-depth and comparative case analyses are performed
Effective email marketing: an empirical study of the impact of personalized communication on customer engagement and purchase decisions
No full textMasteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Business, Marketing - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2019This study investigates the impact of behavior-based personalization on
customer engagement and purchase behavior in the context of email marketing. For
this purpose, the author reviews and combines the following research streams in the
literature: email marketing, personalization of marketing communication, and
customer engagement.
To answer the research question at hand, the author designs a field study in
collaboration with Kahoot! AS, a fast-growing Norwegian start-up company
operating in the education technology industry. Kahoot!’s game-based learning and
trivia platform is used in multiple settings – school and university classrooms,
business training and presentations, social, cultural, and other events (retrieved
from kahoot.com). By leveraging marketing automation technology, which
Kahoot! uses for the email campaigns’ creation and management, the author sets
up and runs the experiment. Findings of the study provide marketing managers with
useful insights on the effectiveness of behavior-based personalization in the email
marketing context as well as contribute to the ongoing academic discussion about
personalized marketing communication and customer engagement.
The results reveal that email communication has a significant positive effect
on customer engagement irrespective of behavior-based personalization. This
proves that email is an effective marketing communication channel, and it should,
therefore, remain a key part of the digital media mix used by marketers. However,
based on the lack of a significant difference in the effectiveness of personalized and
non-personalized email campaigns, the author recommends focusing more on highquality
generic content and the design of the email messages. Furthermore,
consistent with the viewpoints of researchers in the field, the study confirms that
customer engagement is a significant predictor of customer purchases, leading to
the conclusion that firms should invest in customer engagement marketing
initiatives to ultimately achieve better firm performance
Multiproject "hostile" environments
No full textBacheloroppgave i Prosjektledelse fra Handelshøyskolen BI, 2017This thesis addresses the problems and challenges of working in a multiproject
environment, and what could we do to improve it.
The thesis has been prepared in connection with the program BIK 6512 Project
Management 3, at BI Department of Management and Organization Oslo.
The author has been working as a project manager himself for the organization
described for the last 5 years. I’m a Spanish construction engineer who moved to
Norway 5 years ago with my whole family because of the Spanish economy crisis.
I have several years of experience as project manager in Spanish construction
industries, and now I'm leading offshore projects for a Norwegian O & G
engineering company (IKM dsc Engineering). I would like to remark that I’m
fluent in Norwegian and English, but I can express myself much better in English
even though is not my mother language. Please have this in mind when reading
the thesis, thanks!
This thesis has been basically prepared for my own learning, but I really hope it
can contribute to improve the way we face daily our work in a multiproject
environmen
Ordering of organic molecules on templated surfaces
No full textThis thesis describes the controlled growth of molecular nanostructures using modified metallic and semiconductor surfaces. The Ag/Si(lll)-(root3 x root3),the Sn/Cu(100) surface alloy system and the Bi/Si(100) nanolines and (2xn) surfaces were all investigated as suitable substrates for the controlled growth of pentacene, (C22H14) or trimesic acid, (C6H3(COOH)3) organic molecules. The following techniques were used in this study; Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM), Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED), Normal Incident X-Ray Standing Waves (NIXSW) and Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD).
The room temperature growth and ordering of trimesic acid on the AgfSi(ll1)-(root3 x root3) surface was investigated. An oblique unit cell was determined and a model proposed for the highly ordered close-packed domains.
The discovery of a new submonolayer phase on Sn/Cu(100) and the re-examined known phase are discussed. New models for these reconstructions are proposed. Adsorption of trimesic acid at room temperature on the clean substrate the lowest Sn coverage phase were studied. Two new Sn coverage dependent structures were discovered and bonding schemes in upright and flat orientations are discussed.
BifSi(100)-(2xn) surface was exploited as a template for the ordered growth of pentacene, which exhibited orientation specific adsorption. The Bi/Si(100)-(2xn) single domain surface created on vicinal silicon was used to test the suitable of Daresbury 4.2 beamline for NIXSW Imaging experiments and the quality of the results are discussed
Synthesis and Characterization of (1-x)(Na(0.5)Bi(0.5))TiO(3)-xAl(6)Bi(2)O(12) Solid Solution
No full textThe new lead-free (1-x)(Na(0.5)Bi(0.5))TiO(3)-xAl(6)Bi(2)O(12) compounds with x=0.01, 0.02, and 0.03 have been synthesized by conventional solid-state ceramic-fabrication technique. Systematic investigations on the dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of both poled and unpoled samples have been carried out. It was revealed that the dielectric and piezoelectric properties are improved by the addition of an appropriate amount of Al(6)Bi(2)O(12). Comparisons of these properties between poled and unpoled samples are presented. It is found that Curie temperatures and remnant polarization are increased after poling. The coercive field is, however, decreased after poling
Risk modelling and Optimization of Hedging Strategy for a Norwegian Hydropower Producer
No full textMasteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Business Analytics - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2022Presented in collaboration with Hafslund Eco, this thesis examines the process
of decision making for a Norwegian hydropower producer over the medium term.
As part of this process, risk modelling and optimization of the hedging strategy
are undertaken in order to establish an e↵ective frontier between the expected
income and downside risk. The e↵ective frontier reveals the relationship between
expected income and downside risk, more specifically how minimizing downside
risk influences expected income. Having such a model available is a valuable decision
support tool for anyone involved in managing the hedging portfolio of a
hydropower company. Therefore, the author of this thesis considers it to be an
important element of risk management. The main contributions made by this
thesis include a stochastic optimization model for optimizing the hedging portfolio
of a Norwegian hydropower producer and a general analysis of this model.
Additionally, this thesis examines the cost of eliminating the lower-tail outcomes.
By eliminating lower-tail outcomes from the revenue distribution, higher-tail outcomes
are to some extent eliminated as well. However, this depends on the distribution
of the price scenarios and how volatile these are. The model can be used
for speculative trading as well as for hedging. As a result, the thesis compares the
two scenarios in terms of expected income, low income scenarios and high income
scenarios. The thesis concludes with a discussion of tax e↵ects on downside risk
and hedging
Bi-VAKs: Bi-Temporal Versioning Approach for Knowledge Graphs
No full textOver time Linked Data collections are continuously subject to change because of numerous reasons. Users could insert new observations, or they could rectify erroneous statements in these knowledge graphs. In order not to lose historically import information, this trend of evolving Linked Data collections increases the need to version these collections. Furthermore, retrieving prior versions and their in-between changes could provide Linked Data users relevant information. However, for some changes to these collections we should record both their transaction time and their valid time. To address these two problems of versioning Linked Data collections and having bi-temporal changes, we introduce the Bi-Temporal Versioning Approach for Knowledge graphs (Bi-VAKs): a prototypical bi-temporal change-based Version Control System for an arbitrary RDF dataset. Bi-VAKs registers both the transaction time and the valid time of a set of modified quads, and therefore, it allows for coupled historical and retrospective SPARQL queries. In addition, in order to enhance collaboration between its users Bi-VAKs also keeps track on provenance data; it supports diverged states; and provide a standard data access interface. However, since the standard RDF data model is atemporal, defining such a set of modifications (update) in RDF poses difficult challenges. Firstly, to indicate this transaction time and the valid time of an update Bi-VAKs divides a revision or version into a transaction revision and a valid revision. And hence it directly separates the metadata from the actual data. Secondly, to denote and retrieve the modified triples/quads within a update Bi-VAKs uses RDF-star and SPARQL-star. In order to connect these revisions we develop three reference strategies: the explicit, the implicit, and the combined reference strategy. These strategies let a transaction revision either refer explicitly to its corresponding valid revision(s) or implicitly by the same revision number and branch index. Based on these strategies we initiate some different approaches to query the updates from the revision-store. And, we propose some different methods to construct a (prior) version. However, to evaluate these different design decision we cannot use the existing uni-temporal benchmarks for our bi-temporal versioning approach. Therefore, we expand the BEAR benchmark to a bi-temporal benchmark (Bi-BEAR). By means of this benchmark we demonstrate that all three reference strategies have about the same storage size. We notice that the usage of a snapshot and retrieval of all updates worsen the version materialisation (VM), delta materialisation (DM), and version (VQ) query performance. In addition, the VM query look up time considerably decreases if only the matching updates are queried. And modified updates, branches, and more updates in the revision-store slightly lower the VM, DM, and VQ query performance. In addition, for the implicit and combined reference strategy the query time is rather the same, and sometimes even better if we sort the updates instead of aggregating them directly. Overall, the implicit reference strategy is performing best, and is quickly followed by the combined reference strategy.Computer Science | Data Science and Technolog
Interaction between ephrin/Eph and BDNF in modulating hippocampal synaptic transmission and synapse formation
No full textThe hippocampus is a brain structure known to be critical for learning and memory consolidation. Abnormal development or damage to this structure is known to play a role in developmental or degenerative neurological disorders such as autism and Alzheimer's disease. In this thesis, I argue that an interaction between ephrin/Eph and BDNF signaling pathways is critical for the development of the selective connection of CA3 neurons to CA1 neurons in hippocampus. This claim was evaluated on the basis of electrophysiology evidence about the ephrin/Eph -- BDNF interaction in synaptic activity, and the effect of the interrupting Eph and BDNF signaling on the hippocampal projection specificity onto CA1 neurons by functional synapse identification via the combination of electrophysiology and immunocytochemistry.
First, I confirmed that the primary hippocampal neuronal culture can be a model for studying the specificity of synaptic connection within the hippocampal circuitry. Functional synapses were characterized by recording from pairs of cells which we subsequently identified with immunocytochemical labeling. Most connections were unidirectional, and I found that when one of the cells was a CA1 neuron (identified by labeling with the CA1 marker anti-SCIP) it was predominantly the postsynaptic member of the pair, a result consistent with in vivo connectivity. Second, ephrin-A/EphA signaling was shown to produce a transient increase in synaptic transmission and be able to inhibit the effect of subsequent BDNF application on synaptic activity. These electrophysiological experiments were suggestive of possible interaction between ephrin-A/EphA and BDNF in modulation synapse formation. Third, interruption of the endogenous EphA signaling by the kinase dominant negative EphA constructs significantly changed the natural synaptic connection selectivity in the hippocampal circuitry and dramatically increased the bi-directional connections in the culture as a consequence.
The empirical results presented in this thesis provide a valuable mechanism for hippocampal trisynaptic circuitry development and function through balancing opposite influences of various modulating factors at specific developmental phases.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-112)
Dynamic Bi-Colored Graph Partitioning
No full textIn this work, we focus on partitioning dynamic graphs with two types of nodes (bi-colored), though not necessarily bipartite graphs. They commonly appear in communication network applications, e.g., one color being base stations, the other users, and the dynamic process being the varying connection status between base stations and moving users. We introduce a partition cost function that incorporates the coloring of the graph and propose solutions based on the generalized eigenvalue problem (GEVP) for the static two-way partition problem. The static multi-way partition problem is then handled by a heuristic based on the two-way partition problem. Regarding the adaptive partition, an eigenvector update-based method is proposed. Numerical experiments demonstrate the performance of the devised approaches.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Signal Processing SystemsMultimedia Computin
Utfordringer med innføring av nytt digitalt verktøy
No full textExecutive Master of Management i Leading in Digitized Workplaces fra Handelshøyskolen BI, 2023Jeg har i denne oppgaven sett på hva som kan være årsaken til at ikke flere medarbeidere i organisasjonen har tatt i bruk det nye digitale innkjøpsverktøyet til Siemens SI. Både nye innkjøpsprosesser for medarbeiderne, Covid viruset og et verktøy som ikke har vært ferdig utviklet har medført at medarbeiderne som har forskjellig Digitalt Mindset vil reagere forskjellig når et nytt digitalt verktøy innføres i organisasjonen. Det er viktig at vi som organisasjon har kunnskap om medarbeiderne og hva slags Mindset vi har i det forskjellige teamene, slik som det beskrives Digital Mindsets: Recognizing and Leveraging Individual Beliefs for Digital Transformation (Elizabeth Solberg, 2020)
Jeg har også sett på de 4 -Iene «Intuiting, Interpreting, Integrating and Institutionalizing » i artikkelen An Organizational Learning Framework: From Intuition to Institution Author(s) (Mary M. Crossan, 1999) og hvordan bli en lærende organisasjonen i «feed-forward» prosessen som kan motivere medarbeideren og teamet i en tidligere fase til nye ideer og handlinger.
Siemens SI har lett for ikke å sette av tid til tilbakemeldinger (feed-back prosessen), og ved å fokusere på dette kan vi få flere motiverte og positive medarbeidere i organisasjon.
Organisasjonen må også vurdere hvordan endringer skal innføres og boken Leading Digital, (A. McAfee, Mobilizing the Organization, 2014) tar også for seg viktige punkter for å involvere hele organisasjonen. Lederne må sammen med medarbeiderne delta aktiv i organisasjonen, formidle visjon, bidra til en god kultur, og på den måten skape motivasjon og trygghet til teknologiske endringer
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